The Former Maruhage Empire

The Former Maruhage Empire (旧マルハーゲ帝国, Kyū Maruhage Teikoku), also known as the Former Margarita Empire (旧マルガリータ帝国, Kyū Marugarīta Teikoku) in the anime, is a group in the manga and anime series, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. They are better known as the third era of the Maruhage Empire, that existed 100 years prior.

Contents

Background

One century before the start of the series, the Maruhage Empire was one of many countries on planet Earth: a small country of little notice. However, it was at this time that a new, powerful emperor took control of the country. This emperor was Tsuru Tsurulina III, who had a fierce hatred for humanity, and a desire to conquer and destroy all. Gathering the most powerful soldiers and forces in the empire, he sparked an invasion that would not stop under any circumstance. Within three days of the start of the invasion, Tsurulina III and the Maruhage Empire had conquered nearly the entire world. They now ruled over the entire population and controlled it with an iron fist, dividing their conquest into twenty-six blocks, each ruled by one of the generals who took part in the invasion.[1]

However, even with control of practically the entire Earth, Tsurulina III wanted more. In particular, he became interested in one country that had remained unconquered during his three-day reign of terror: the Hair Kingdom, a small kingdom filled with creatures that resembled hair follicles... As well as a couple of humanoids. When the Maruhage Empire proceeded to invade the Hair Kingdom, its warriors defended it with an internal artifact known as the Hair Ball, which gave them amazing powers and abilities. Tsurulina became obsessed with obtaining a Hair Ball to the point of invading the Hair Kingdom again and again, yet always failed to make a dent in conquering the land and obtaining the power for himself.[2] To further show his seriousness in defeating the hair menace, the emperor would declare "Hair Hunts", where his soldiers and generals would scour the countryside making every man, woman and child bald. Several other lands other than the Hair Kingdom remained out of reach to the Maruhage Empire, including the defiance of the similarly chaotic Shigeki Kingdom led by the enigmatic Shigeki X.[3]

However, at the height of their power, with the world under their finger and complete authoritarian rule, Tsurulina and his entire Maruhage force did something unexpected: they disappeared. In particular, the emperor, his generals and all the Maruhage soldiers sealed themselves into a cryogenic chamber and froze themselves. Their assumption was that, since the world completely under the Maruhage Empire, no one would stand to face them when they rise once again if their rule was ever under threat. For one hundred years, the chamber holding the old soldiers remained underground and undisturbed while the Maruhage Empire they built continued to exist unopposed by any forces.

Around one-hundred years after their freezing, the seal to their cryogenic chamber broke and the chamber rose to the surface once more. A new emperor, Tsuru Tsurulina IV (dub: Czar Baldy-Bald the Fourth) now ruled the empire. However, the land that these ancient generals built was under threat: a band of strange rebels led by Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, a warrior from the Hair Kingdom, was plowing through the forces of the modern Maruhage, taking out generals and even the most powerful of the IV's warriors. Although the current emperor seemed scared at first that his more powerful predecessors had returned from cryogenic sleep, he saw this as a double fold opportunity for himself: the warriors from a hundred years ago were much more powerful than his own and they would immediately go after the warrior from the Hair Kingdom that was causing him all this trouble. Allowing the warriors to do as they desire, they return once again to fight against the rebels...not knowing of the weird and powerful opponents they were about to face.[4]

The most common technique used by the leaders of the former empire is Sangaria (or Turbo Trio Salva), which allows any of three block leaders to create a very powerful attack.

Former Emperor

Tsuru Tsurulina III

Seven Main Former Block Leaders

(旧隊長, Kyū Taichō): Like the modern Maruhage Empire, the Maruhage Empire of one-hundred years ago was primarily divided into twenty-six letter blocks. Similarly, the seven most powerful of these generals lead the seven most powerful blocks (A-G) and likewise became the main leaders of the many other generals in the modern battles. Four of them lead specific areas of the Neo-Hair Hunt Land MAX, an amusement park constructed by Tsuru Tsurulina IV just for their own usage. A fifth member, Rem, unofficially became the lead of another of the attractions, but was not awake when they were placed in that area. Lambada, who chose to work on his own instead of leading an attraction, eventually joins in the attraction led by Rem... But although he is more powerful than the true leader of the attraction, he merely becomes one of the combatants inside. The last of these seven woke early and lead an advanced team of former Hair Hunters in the modern world.

Combat Blues

Ujikin TOKIO

Rose-Lily Kikunojō

Other Block Leaders

Like the modern Maruhage Empire, Hair-Hunt blocks in the former era were lead by powerful leaders. As they awoke into this time, the major block leaders recruited several of the lesser leaders to assist in the Sangaria matches against Bo-bobo's group. Those who weren't chosen ended up assisting on the less-major attractions of Neo-Hair Hunt Land MAX, such as the merry-go-round, which is primarily ruled by three block leaders without any true leadership.

Chisuisui

(チスイスイ, Chisuisui)/Vampire Lame-stat: The former commander of K-Block. Chisuisui is a vampire who assists Ujikin TOKIO and Star Saber in the "Runaway Robot Range". He was mostly in charge of changing the route that Gizmo Gadget the Robot moved through, by using his cape to change the track pieces. Despite his best efforts, he and his team fell before the awesome powers of Bo-bobo's "Supernatural Mystery 7 Traveller".

Like a typical vampire, Chisuisui uses his teeth to suck the blood of his victims. Unfortunately, this ability isn't very useful for sucking tokorten, as shown when he tries to use it on Tokoro Tennosuke. He is also known to have good speed and agility, as he can easily move out the way from being run over by Gizmo Gadget. During a special power-up known as "S.F.", his clothes change into a sci-fi costume, complete with a light-saber. Despite being a vampire, Chisuisui fought with Bo-bobo and friends in broad daylight, and seemed unaffected by the sunlight.

Attacks

Blood Drinking/Vampire Attack: Fist of Fangs: Chisuisui sinks his teeth into his opponent's neck. He uses this on Tokoro Tennosuke, but as soon as he bites him, Tokoro Tennosuke pretends to be a mother and comforts him, which really disturbs Chisuisui.

Episode Appearances: v

Manga Appearances: 131-134

Seiyuu: Hiroshi Okamoto

Voice Actor:

Star Saber

(スターセイバー, Sutā Seibā)/Freak-O-Vision (English dub)/Star Saver (English manga): The former leader of P-Block, he's a walking TV monitor with a fan on his back and boxing gloves on his fists. His abilities include a powerful punch as well as the ability to transform himself and his allies into sci-fi versions of themselves.

Attacks

Megaton Punch: Throws a forceful punch at the enemy with his boxing gloves. This works on Hatenko the first time, but the next time, Hatenko blocks it with no effort.

Swimsuit Girl & Swimsuit Gal

(水着ギャル, Mizugi Gyaru) and (水着ガール, Mizugi Gāru)/Bathing Suit Girl and Bikini Girl (English manga): Two teenage girls in swimsuits who are respectively the former leaders of J-Block and W-Block and working alongside Combat Blues at the water slide battlefield. The two of them comfort their boss every time he's knocked out, instantly reviving him back into action (and leading to accusations of him being a pervert). However, near the episode's end, Bo-bobo turned them to good just before Combat Blues is defeated.

Hagaiou

(覇凱王, Hagaiou)/Baron von Horny: A creature who great resembles Haou of the Three Prison-Murderer Brothers. Both are green ball creatures with black curly hair, but while Haou has two small horns on his head, Haigaou has three horns, the two side horns much larger than the center horn. It is possible that he is an ancestor of the brothers, and have similar names, but any link between them is open to theory.

Haigaou serves as the Former Q-Block Leader, and is seen with Jeda the Wind God and Raparapa in the "Ice Mecha Ring". He controls a giant frog mech that can transform into an elephant during the match. However, he and Raparapa prove to be not even a hindrance to Bo-bobo and the others, leaving only Jeda to keep them at bay. This all changes when Bo-bobo and Don Patch fused into PatchBobo, who easily destroys the entire arena. Afterwards, PatchBobo takes Haigaou's lunchbox and turns its contents into weaponry. PatchBobo then fuses Haigaou and Jeda together into a hodgepodge being with Hagaiou's body and Jeda's face. After one final strike from two King Nosehairs, the trio is defeated and Haigaou and Jeda defuse while falling unconscious.

Attacks:

Neo Machine Gun: Both Hagaiou and Raparapa use their mechas to fire ammo at the opponents. Used against Bo-bobo.

Frog Tongue/Frog's Tongue: Hagaiou's frog mecha grabs the opponent with his tongue. Used against Bo-bobo.

Eagle Claw: Hagaiou's transformed elephant mecha attacks the opponent with his hoof. Used against Tokoro Tennosuke.

Episode Appearances: 58-59

Manga Appearances:

Seiyuu: Yusuke Numata

Voice actor: Dan Lorge

Raparapa

(ラパラパ)/Lapalapa: The Former N-Block Leader, Raparapa is a man with black hair, but has a yellow spiked up ponytail. He wears no shirt, making the many tatoos on his body visible. He was first seen working with Jeda the Wind God and Hagaiou in the ice-skating attraction, "Ice Mecha Ring". He was the one explaining the rules for the match, but despite his knowlege of the area and his superior mech, both he and Hagaiou proved no match for the rebels, though their boss Jeda was shown to be much more capable. But after Bo-bobo and Don Patch fused into PatchBobo, they easily dominated the fight, and made short, humorous work out of the former Maruhage agents.

Attack:

Neo Machine Gun: Both Raparapa and Hagaiou use their mechas to fire ammo at the opponents. Used against Bo-bobo.

Episode Appearances: 58-59

Manga Appearances:

Seiyuu: Hiroshi Tsuchida

Voice Actor: Steve Kramer

Three-Thousand Years

(三千年, Sanzennen): Former O-Block Leader and the only competent member of the Merry-Go-Round attack squad, he fights with the secret technique from three-thousand years of Chinese history: flying bowls of ramen. While he is the only one of his trio on the Merry-Go-Round that fights, he easily falls by a team effort of Softon, Hatenko and Torpedo Girl.

Yagyu

(やぎゅう, Yagyū): Former V-Block Leader. Yagyu is a samurai who is best described as an idiot after trying to charge at Heppokomaru, Softon, Hatenko, and Torpedo Girl on a Merry-Go-Round horse. His ponytail gets ripped off by Torpedo Girl and used as Calligraphy brush.

Model

(モーデル, Mōderu)/ Morbel: Former X-Block Leader who loves to hold his own fashion shows, even at the most inappropriate times. He use to be the star of the shows, that is until Torpedo Girl kicked him off and stole the spotlight. He appears again during the New Emperor Playoffs.

Episode Appearances: 59, 73

Manga Appearances:

Seiyuu: Keiichiro Yamamoto

Voice actor:

Rububa the Bubbles

(泡玉のルブバ, Awadama no Rububa), also known as Bubble-uba in the English dub, and Elbbub in the English manga: Rububa the Bubbles is the former leader of Z-Block of the third era. He has spiky blond hair, wears a white tank top, three sets of goggles, and yellow beads.

Rububa uses the power of Shabon Shinken (シャボン真拳, Fist of Soap; Fist of Blowing Bubbles in the dub) which involves blowing through a giant straw to create massive sized bubbles. This technique allows him to create many bubble based attacks including making poisonous bubbles, creating two bubble-bodied henchmen, and even turning himself into a giant bubble.

Rububa the Bubbles makes his first appearance in "Life or Death Triple" machine (a giant coin machine in the middle of the park) as one of the three guardians of the arena. He is the first guardian that Bo-bobo and company meet,and he starts the battle off by trapping Beauty in a bubble and sending her to another area in the machine, making Bo-bobo frantic to reach her. Shortly afterwards, he gets a challenge from his predecessor, Dengakuman, whom he defeats with hardly any effort, leaving Bo-bobo and Don Patch to fight him. Bo-bobo realizes the threat that Rububa and the other two guardians represent, so he sends out a call to two more people to help him. One of them is hajikelist master Rice, who (along with Bo-bobo and Don Patch) finishes off Rububa with a powerful "Hajike Cannon".

In Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Rububa, along with Lambada, Ujikin TOKIO and Jeda the Wind God, tried to revolt against the third only to be promptly defeated by Princess Chinchiro and turned into dice (A Rububa Dice block is never seen, but given Chinchiro's hobby of turning her foes into dice, it is likely that he became one as well). They are supposedly returned to normal after Princess Chinchiro is defeated.

Create Bubble Man (バブルマン創造)/ Create Bubble Kid (バブルキッド創造)/The Bubble Brothers, Buby and Buba: Rububa creates two monsters made out of bubbles to attack the opponent. Its called "Create Bubble Kid" in the anime.

Ishikawa Goemon

(イシカワ・ゴエモン, Ishikawa・Goemon)/Roman Samurai: First introduced as "Romantic You" (浪漫貴公, Roman Kikō): Ishikawa Goemon serves as the former R-Block leader. He's a strange samurai-like warrior first seen in the Hell Area of "Life or Death Triple" (a giant coin machine) of the Former Maruhage Empire's theme park. He easily dispatches Tokoro Tennosuke (who makes his way back into the arena not too much later), but is eventually forced to fight Don Patch, who easily guesses his true identity. Just to humiliate him further, Don Patch turns Goemon's "Fist of Strange Animals" against him.

Though he was thought to have been defeated, Goemon gets back up. Goemon tries to analyze his baffling opponent's insides, only to find that they resemble a three story Japanese castle. True to his thief nature, Goemon tries to steal from the "castle", only to have Don Patch defeat him for real this time, and throws him out of the coin machine. The machine spits him out in a trunk, and Goemon is never seen again.

Ishikawa Goemon is the master of "Genjū Shinken" (幻獣真拳 Fist of Strange Animals), allowing him to summon strange (but not so terrifying) creatures from a special Japanese shrine to fight for him. However, the technique is not perfect, and the monsters are liable to attack him instead of the enemy.

He also possesses a small telescope, which helps him to identify his opponents, thus making them easier to defeat. However, this telescope is proven useless against high-level hajikelists, who cannot be analyzed because of their nonsensical nature.

Attacks

Double Rashomon (W羅生門)/Closet Door Horror: Summons two gates, which both supposedly contain hideous monsters. Unfortunately, it was revealed that one closet only held cute and adorable creatures, while the other held only gooey and feeble monsters.

Datascope (データスコープ)/Telescope: Uses a decorative telescope to see through the enemy's powers and identity.

Episode Appearances: 60-62

Manga Appearances:

Seiyuu: Kenta Miyake

Voice Actor: Paul St. Peter

Kancho-kun

Chikuwan

(チクワン)/Churro Charlie: Chikuwan is the Former H-Block Leader who is a living chikuwa, a type of fishcake (a churro in the dub). His basic form of attack is trapping enemies with his tube-like body, and squeezing them to death. Chikuwan's sneezes are also known to be explosive. Like all food-based fighters of the series, Chikuwan can survive dismemberment.

He is first seen trying to help Hanpen and Guy Bō fight against the rebels. He had great respect for Hanpen, proven by his starting a group cheer (with other living food creatures) for Hanpen. This causes Hanpen to yell at Chikuwan and his cheering squad, making them all upset. He and Hanpen also had a few tag team moves to contribute to the battle. However, not even this could prevent defeat at the hands of Tenbobo who dispatched all three of them with incredibly brutal attacks.

Guy Bō

(GUY坊, GUY Bō)/Guy Boy: Guy Bo is a man who has an odd face and wears a "Takuhatsugasa" hat. He is the Former I-Block Leader who helps Hanpen and Chikuwan fight Bo-bobo and the rebels. Both he and Chikuwan had great respect for Hanpen. He kept surprise-attacking Hatenko whenever the key master got distracted, but ends up doing this one too many times and gets his arm "LOCKED". Things only got worse for him after Bo-bobo and Tokoro Tennosuke fused into Tenbobo, who viciously and brutally attacked the trio with "peace" until they were defeated. Bell sounds are usually heard when Guy Bo strikes.

Remaining Block Leaders

(残りの隊長達, Nokori no Taichō-tachi): The remaining former block leaders, who are all defeated by Torpedo Girl off-screen. They are presumably the former leaders of blocks L, M, S, T, and U. In the anime, due to an animation error, there is a sixth person on top of the pile.

Hair Hunters

Rose-Lily Kikunojo's Hair Hunters

Associate Hair Hunters #5 and #6

Two unnamed hair hunters, a human in torn clothing with a switchblade and a small gumdrop-like creature with wings. The two of them were former Hair Hunters from a hundred years ago. Working together, they force Tsuru Tsurulina IV to release the former block leaders from their era to take care of the enemies in this time. They are sacrificed by the Reverse Maruhage Empire after dropping out of the New Emperor Playoffs. These two, along with Combat Blues, remain loyal to Tsuru Tsurulina III through the end of the first series.

Episode Appearances: 52-53, 55, 75-76

Manga Appearances:

Seiyuu:

Voice Actor: Steve Staley (Associate Hair Hunter #5)

Other Members

Gadget-kun

(ガジェット君, Gajetto-kun)/Gizmo Gadget the Robot: The robot of the "Runaway Robot" Gizmo Gadget attraction, operated by Ujikin TOKIO's team in the Runaway Robot Range. It follows the path of the tracks on the field and can be altered at any time. However, if it ever crashes, it explodes.

Episode Appearances: 55

Manga Appearances:

Bubble Kids

(バブルキッド, Baburu Kiddo)/Bubble Brothers: Buby & Buba: Two demonic bubble beings that are summoned by Rububa the Bubbles. Dengakuman tries to beat them in a Fist of the North Star-style battle, but gets defeated easily.

Episode Appearances: 60

Manga Appearances:

Hell Ghost

(地獄のオバケ, Jigoku Obake): A demon-like creature who frightens Tennosuke when he tries to read a picture book to take is mind off of the dark and creepy atmosphere of the Hell Area in the "Life or Death Triple" machine.

Episode Appearances: 60

Manga Appearances:

Phantom Beasts

(幻獣達, Genju-tachi):

Episode Appearances: 62

Manga Appearances:

Jelly-like Phantom Beasts

(ゼリー状の幻獣, Zerī-jō no Genjū):

Episode Appearances: 62

Manga Appearances:

Seiyuu:

Voice Actors:

References

↑Bo-bobo vol. 12, pg. 128 - Tsurulina IV explains the history of the Former Maruhage